Discovery BoxActs 26:1 
ContextPaul Offers His Defense
26:1 So Agrippa 1 said to Paul, “You have permission 2 to speak for yourself.” Then Paul held out his hand 3 and began his defense: 4
Acts 26:14
Context26:14 When we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in Aramaic, 5 ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? You are hurting yourself 6 by kicking against the goads.’ 7
1 sn See the note on King Agrippa in 25:13.
2 tn Grk “It is permitted for you.”
3 tn Or “extended his hand” (a speaker’s gesture).
4 tn Or “and began to speak in his own defense.”
5 tn Grk “in the Hebrew language.” See Acts 22:7 and 9:4.
6 tn Grk “It is hard for you.”
7 tn “Goads” are pointed sticks used to direct a draft animal (an idiom for stubborn resistance). See BDAG 539-40 s.v. κέντρον 2.
sn Sayings which contain the imagery used here (kicking against the goads) were also found in Greek writings; see Pindar, Pythians 2.94-96; Euripides, Bacchae 795.
